William Cowper Quotes on Man (19 Quotes)

O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?

Then love in every heart would reign,
And war would cease to roar;
And cruel and bloodthirsty men
Would thirst for blood no more.

The earth was made so various, that the mind Of desultory man, studious of change, And pleased with novelty, might be indulged.

But strive still to be a man before your mother.

An honest man, close-buttoned to the chin, Broadcloth without, and a warm heart within.

Man disavows, and Deity disowns me hell might afford my miseries a shelter therefore hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all bolted against me.

A self-made man? Yes, and one who worships his creator.

Candid and generous and just. Boys care but little whom they trust. An error soon corrected -- for who but learns in riper years. That man, when smoothest he appears, is most to be suspected

The man that dares traduce, because he can with safety to himself, is not a man.

Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will.

Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, Whilst meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray.

Dejection of spirits, which may have prevented many a man from becoming an author, made me one. I find constant employment necessary, and therefore take care to be constantly employed. . . . When I can find no other occupation, I think and when I think, I am very apt to do it in rhyme.

Forced from home, and all its pleasures, afric coast I left forlorn to increase a stranger's treasures, o the raging billows borne. Men from England bought and sold me, paid my price in paltry gold but, though theirs they have enroll'd me, minds are never to be sold.

Men deal with life as children with their play,Who first misuse, then cast their toys away.

Society, friendship, and love, Divinely bestowed upon man, Oh, had I the wings of a dove, How soon would I taste you again

If my resolution to be a great man was half so strong as it is to despise the shame of being a little one . . . .

No man can be a patriot on an empty stomach.

All constraint, Except what wisdom lays on evil men, Is evil.

I would not enter on my list of friends (Though graced with polished manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility) the man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.